


Told You So

by marklesparkle



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Gay Panic, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, basically 2tae remember the time taeil realized he was gay, yuta is a skinny legend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-01 00:59:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13987050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marklesparkle/pseuds/marklesparkle
Summary: Taeyong and Taeil take a trip down memory lane. Or, the one where Taeil’s Gay Awakening™️ is triggered by a soft Taeyong in pink fuzzy slippers eating mashed potatoes on their couch.





	Told You So

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this a literal year ago and just now found it in the catacombs of my pc and thought i'd share so. bon appetit ! also i decided to make this two parts instead of one bc it was easier to write if that makes sense ?? idk ! it was the only way i could finally Finish Off This Drafted Demon ! bon appetit pt. 2 uwu !
> 
> big ass thank u to katelyn for giving me ideas and cheering me on ilu bro *cowboy emoji*
> 
> anonymous said: 2tae on a sunday morning?

Taeil loves Taeyong.

He loves the shape of his husband’s eyes and the softness they exude whenever they’re focused on him. He loves his hair and how he refuses to dye it anything other than the same shade of milk-chocolate he’d been obsessed with in their college days. He loves his cupid’s bow and the way it stands out so prominently amongst the rest of his delicate features. He loves the scar underneath his eye and how its texture feels underneath the pad of his thumb when Taeyong’s face is in his lap, wordlessly allowing Taeil to caress and admire the love of his life as much as he so pleases.

It’s quiet in the couple’s room this particular Sunday morning, the only sound being their low breathing. Taeil has one hand in Taeyong’s hair, working out the knots with his nimble fingers. Taeyong himself is more than happy to lay slack in the older man’s arms, halfway between sleep and consciousness. It’s not unusual for the two to find themselves in such a position on any given weekend seeing as both are always perfectly content to do nothing but bask in each other’s presence, the same way they’ve been for nearly a decade now.

Although it seems like eons ago, Taeil and Taeyong met when Taeil was seventeen and Taeyong was sixteen. Taeil’s twenty-fifth birthday’s right around the corner and the more he thinks about it the more he thinks about just how _long_ he’s known Taeyong. Their relationship long spans past that of their romantic endeavors, first starting innocently enough in high school when Taeyong was seeking out a math tutor and was eventually introduced to Taeil. Their meetings quickly went from solving equations to getting food together after studying to playing video games on weekends to introducing friend groups to becoming each other’s whole entire world in a matter of months. (Somewhere along the line they got married, too, but Taeil’s inner monologue isn’t quite there yet.)

There’s a shuffle of sheets, startling Taeil momentarily. He’d been so wrapped up in his internal affairs, he’d completely forgotten Taeyong’s been awake his whole time. As if on cue, a sleep-laden voice slices through the peace of the room, “Why’d you stop?” For a second Taeil has no idea what Taeyong means, but then his face splits into a grin as he realizes that while he’d been thinking, he’d stopped massaging the other’s scalp. He laughs and wordlessly begins to start the motion again, much to Taeyong’s pleasure.

“Thinking about how long you’ve been haunting me makes it hard to keep petting you. Sorry,” Taeil apologizes, not feeling sorry at all. He looks down at Taeyong’s side profile, who’s watching the television set up in front of their bed. The light from whatever show or commercial’s playing casts shades of blue, white, red, green, and purple on his husband’s face, making him seem like some sort of unreal being from a different galaxy entirely, which is exactly what he looks like on most days, anyway; sometimes the extent of Taeyong’s beauty truly just knocks Taeil in the stomach even after all these years.

Underneath Taeil’s palm, Taeyong snorts, bringing more blankets to clutch to his chest. “How can I haunt you if you’re alive? That’s not how it works, Tae.”

Taeil rolls his eyes. “I know that, _Tae_ ,” he mocks, “I’m just saying that you’ve been following me around since high school.” It’s rather inconvenient that the two of them share the first syllable of their names, but it’s also pretty hilarious for certain punchlines. “Not that I’m complaining, obviously.” Taeyong doesn’t verbally reply to this, instead choosing to curl his legs to his chest like the lump of covers he had taken previously. He exhales softly and for a while after that, neither of them speak.

It’s not until Taeyong’s giggling like a toddler with his palm covering his mouth, body shaking, that Taeil even realizes he hasn’t fallen asleep yet. Before he can even ask what in God’s name is so funny, Taeyong beats him to the punch, flipping his head so that when Taeil looks down at the mattress, he’s looking straight into his eyes. Although the giggling fit is over, there’s still traces of laughter in Taeyong’s voice as he says, “Remember when you used to think you were straight?”

This question has been a running gag between them since their second and third year of university when things between them started becoming more confusing than the elaborate equations Taeil solved in his physics class. Until then, they had been the best of friends and Taeil never felt _weird_ about their relationship at all: enter Nakamoto Yuta and every single ounce of security Taeil thought he had in his life went right out the goddamn door.

Yuta was, in short, the first openly gay person Taeil ever met. He was also the only other person in Taeil’s Art 1000 class who _wasn’t_ a freshman. Long story short, the two of them became quick friends, much like he and Taeyong did back in high school. Unlike Taeyong, Yuta’s personality held much more of a threshold for teasing than Taeyong’s, who was incredibly sensitive, despite his outer appearance. Taeil and Yuta could sit in the library and pore over books for hours all whilst sending each other little jabs about each other’s haircut, handwriting, organizational skills, and even their majors (finance and nutrition.) Honestly, it was fun to hang out with Yuta because he was so different than anyone else Taeil was friends with; he was loud, honest, dramatic, unapologetic, and _really_ handsome. Taeil’s friendship with Yuta, in a way, started his long-time romantic relationship with Taeyong.

That year, Taeil saw more of Yuta than he did Taeyong who, at the time, was his roommate as well as his best friend. Taeyong never came out and said point blank that he didn’t like Yuta but when the three of them were all together at Taeil and Taeyong’s dorm, there was a definite air of tension in the room. Yuta being the asshole he was and still is to this day, thought it was hilarious; he’d even go out of his way to be especially friendly to Taeyong when it was clear the other had a hard time even looking the nutrition major in the eye. Taeil never understood the rigid interactions between his two closest friends until he and Yuta were in the dining hall one day, eating a late dinner, when Yuta himself brought it up.

“Can you _please_ tell Taeyong I have a boyfriend? I’m getting bored of the ice prince charade,” Yuta had said, lazily popping the cap off his juice and taking a big gulp. Taeil’s face must have conveyed his confusion because after seeing the older student’s expression, Yuta sighed heavily. “Oh, c’mon, Taeil., don’t play dumb with me. You can’t honestly say you don’t _feel_ Mr. MOMA’s jealousy radiating from his freaky doe eyes whenever I so much as ask for a fucking napkin at your place.”

At that point in time, Taeil wasn’t playing dumb at all; he really had no idea what Yuta was rambling about. So, in true Taeil fashion, he asked, “What the fuck’s that supposed to mean? No offense, your highness, but why would Taeyong be jealous of you?”

Yuta heaved another heavy sigh, massaging his temples with crumb-littered fingers. “Well, for starters, I’m drop-dead gorgeous.” Taeil rolled his eyes, causing Yuta to cackle before continuing. “And I’m also, like, your new best friend. Pretty boy doesn’t enjoy competition, I guess.” He took a bite of his turkey wrap, contemplating his next words carefully. “He’s also in love with you, so there’s that.”

The next part of the story is as cliché as anyone could guess; Yuta and Taeil argued over whether or not Taeyong’s in love with Taeil for about a solid hour until the dining hall closed at ten sharp. They were gathering their books and shoving them sleepily into their respective bags, trying to not get kicked out by the ridiculously serious hostess who was in charge of wrangling pathetic vermin like them out at the end of every night and Taeil had yet to allow the idea of Lee Taeyong being in “L word” with him properly register in his mind. The shit just didn’t make _sense_.

“What do you mean it doesn’t make sense? What part of Taeyong thinking you’re hot is hard to accept? It’s not like you’ve never looked in the mirror, Taeil. _God_ ,” Yuta had groaned, raking a hand through his caramel locks and staring all too patronizingly at the other. His backpack was hiked up on his hip impatiently, which was usually a pretty good sign for Taeil to hurry the hell up so they could blow that popsicle stand, but that night, Taeil was in no such mood to go back to his own apartment. He continued to leisurely put away his pens, pretending not to feel the raw irritation radiating from the Japanese man.

“I’ve looked in the mirror, yes, but I’ve never seen anyone Taeyong would be interested in looking back. He’s another level of attractive, Yuta. He’s an angel. A fucking angel. What would someone from Heaven want with me, an _actual_ gremlin?” Taeil snorted, finally having gathered all his things. The pair of them began their tread back to the entrance, walking side by side. “I’m not even into guys, anyway. I mean, I have eyes so I know he’s beautiful, but I don’t like him like that. We’re just friends.”

Yuta was silent for the next couple of moments and Taeil thought the conversation was over until the nutrition major opened his mouth once more. “You’ve got to be shitting me, Moon Taeil. _You_? Not into dudes? Since when?” He cackled loudly, splitting the crisp October air around them in half the second his mouth opened. His hand clasped Taeil’s shoulder and squeezed, holding onto the shorter man for support in the event of his laughing fit. “I can’t believe you literally just said ‘No homo, but Taeyong’s the most goddamn gorgeous man I’ve ever seen.’ Like, c’mon. Tell me you’re kidding, Taeil. _Please_.”

A hot blush seared Taeil’s cheeks and ears. He didn’t know what bothered him the most about this conversation: the fact that Yuta thought Taeil was gay all this time or that Yuta was starting to make Taeil question his perfectly ordinary aesthetic attraction to Taeyong. Because _everyone thinks Taeyong’s beautiful, right? That’s normal. It’s natural. He’s conventionally attractive and there’s nothing wrong with publicly acknowledging that. Don’t let Yuta get to you. He’s just fucking around._

Taeil shoved Yuta’s hand off his shoulder, nearly sending him into a fire hydrant. The dining hall was far behind them now but there was still a bit of ground to cover before they reached their shared apartment complex. Yuta and his roommate, Jaehyun, lived on the third floor while Taeil and Taeyong were on the fifth. To say Taeil wasn’t looking forward to looking Taeyong in the eyes for the rest of his natural born life was the understatement of the year.

“I’m not kidding, asshole. I’m straight. _Het-er-o-sex-u-al_. Why is that so fucking hard to believe?” Taeil huffed, feeling more and more irritated by the minute. He was past the confused stage and now onto flat-out anger; Yuta’s amusement of the whole situation wasn’t making anything better, either. “I dated Seungwan last year. Did you forget about that or are you more of a dumbass than I originally thought?”

Yuta rolled his eyes, clearly not buying whatever Taeil was attempting to sell as heterosexuality. “I’d use the term ‘date’ very loosely, Moon Moon. You went out twice and I bet you didn’t even hold hands; I’d hardly call that a _romantic_ relationship.”

Taeil visibly recoiled at this accusation but chose to say nothing about how scarily accurate it was. Yuta didn’t need his ego any more inflated than it already was never mind that it was none of his business what the couple did last year in the closed quarters of Taeil’s apartment (read: nothing). Yuta didn’t need to know that the only reason Taeil went out was because she asked first and couldn’t find it in himself to reject her. Plus, she really was a pretty girl. Gorgeous, even. But at the end of the day it didn’t work out because she simply was…not Taeil’s type.

“What the fuck do _you_ know about my love life? Just because it didn’t work out with her doesn’t mean I’m gay, for Christ’s sake; we didn’t click and that was it. End of story. None of this has anything to do with Taeyong and it never has—you’re the one making it weird,” Taeil argued, clenching his fists around the straps of his backpack to quell the frustration quickly building in his throat. It was more than embarrassing to have your sexuality questioned in a public setting while also being accused of having feelings for your best friend who allegedly returned them. There was nothing Taeil wanted to do more than choke at that moment but he knew if he did then no one would live on to tell his truth of his heterosexuality, so that idea was quickly nixed.

Yuta snorted. “I’m not making it weird because trust me, it’s been fifty shades of delusional for a while,” he starts. He beckons Taeil closer again and the older man warily follows the motion, coming to walk by the other’s side. Yuta links their arms and continues his speech with a tone utter desperation, “But that’s beside the point, okay? I’m trying to tell you that Taeyong likes you and that you like him back. And look, I’m not trying to be the world’s biggest prick by outing you to…yourself, I’m really fucking not, but your skull is as thick as concrete and I know you’ll never connect the dots on your own. Taeyong would probably piss his pants if he ever tried to confess to you, which is why you have to do it for him. I’m tired of getting _leered_ at over the mashed potatoes, Taeil; you gotta fix this shit, my guy.”

By this point, the pair’s apartment was within sight. The poor lighting from various lamp posts lit up the street before them, distorting Taeil’s view of Yuta under the moonlight. He knew he had to withstand this torture for only a couple more feet and then he would be free to take refuge in the confines of his own room for the rest of the night; that thought alone willed him to continue his journey with the Japanese man without literally imploding or shoving him away for a second time. “Fix it?” Taeil puffed, holding back a laugh of his own. “There’s nothing _to_ be fixed. I’m straight and Taeyong doesn’t even see me like that. He just thinks you’re annoying and to be honest, I agree.”

Yuta released Taeil’s arm to push open the main entrance of their building, holding it open for the shorter man. They silently made their way to the elevators, past the front desk and a handful of fake plants that were beginning to collect dust on their leaves. It was pretty quiet for this time of night considering how obnoxiously rowdy things typically were on week nights when Taeil was trying to get shit done but, really, he wasn’t complaining. Maybe he’d actually be able to sleep tonight if this conversation or Yuta’s idiotic smile wasn’t going to give him fucking nightmares.

Taeil reached forward and pressed the up button with his pointer finger. He looked back at Yuta, who was leaning on the wall behind him, already staring back. He grinned at the exact second the elevator dinged, opening up for the both of them. Yuta sauntered past Taeil and on into the metal contraption, still smiling to himself. He punched the three and five buttons before leaning leisurely on the railing on the wall closest to the myriad of emergency knobs. “Tell Taeyong I said hello, will you?” he asked, winking once for an extra dramatic flair.

Feeling absolutely drained by not only studying for the last few hours, but the ridiculous conversation they’d carried on the entire way home, Taeil refused to play along any longer. “Fuck you,” is all he responded, leaning up on the opposite wall and closing his eyes. He exhaled deeply but couldn’t shake the weight of tonight’s conversation from his chest. His words had no real bit to them and Yuta most definitely knew it because he laughed again, much to Taeil’s vexation.

The elevator dinged for a second time, signaling its stop on the third floor. There was no one else around so Yuta took the time to step out and hold the door for an extra second, beaming at his older friend with a certain mischievous glint in his eyes. “My name’s Yuta, not Taeyong, old man. Go get some rest, okay, mate? Cheers!” He blew a kiss and with that, he ducked out of Taeil’s sight before the other could even think to react or punch him in the throat.

Yuta was long gone when Taeil gave his retreating back the middle finger, but it still made the exhausted finance major feel better.

_Goddamn you, Nakamoto Yuta._

-

When Taeil finally made it back to his apartment, he wasn’t surprised in the least to find Lee Taeyong in all his celestial glory sitting on their couch watching some well-dated _America’s Next Top Model_ re-run. In his lap sat a bowl of mashed potatoes that were undoubtedly left-overs from the other night when Yuta had eaten dinner with them. His hair was a soft shade of caramel and the basic black t-shirt and joggers he’d been wearing were nothing to write home about but there was something _different_ about the way Taeil’s eyes were seeing him in that moment. They weren’t just looking, no; they were _drinking_ the sight of his roommate in fucking pajamas in as if it were some awe-inspiring spectacle and not a grown man in fuzzy pink house slippers munching on mashed potatoes in the quiet of their apartment.

Taeil was so absolutely _fucked._

It was like his eyes had a mind of their own; while his brain practically _screamed_ to keep walking and to head straight back to his room for the night, it was as if they weren’t connected at all to Taeil’s body. He stood in their doorway, backpack still slung over his shoulder and keys still in hand, as if he were frozen in time by Taeyong’s mere existence. He had no idea how long he was stuck there, memorizing Taeyong’s side-profile as told by the glow of the television.

The only thing that finally registered in his mind was when the weight of his body fell backwards ever-so-slightly, making contact with the front door and emitting a sound so deafening in the near quiet of the apartment it almost made Taeil yelp on the spot. Immediately, Taeyong’s eyes jumped from the television screen and found Taeil’s fear-stricken figure leaning heavily on the main threshold of their apartment. His smile was both effortless and strikingly bright in darkness surrounding him as he recognized the intruder as only Taeil.

“You’re back early tonight,” Taeyong commented, picking himself up off the couch with the utmost grace. He put the container of left-overs on their coffee table and began to make his way towards Taeil, who had yet to make any such effort to pick himself up. “No Yuta tonight?” he asked, padding his way to the front door to help Taeil with his things.

Normally, Taeil was deeply exhausted by the time he got home every night. Taeyong knew the closer he got to graduation, the more stressful things had become for him. Although he was secretly glad Yuta was nowhere to be found for the time being, as unusual as that was, he was happy to have Taeil to himself for a while. The least Taeyong could do to ease the weight of his friend’s day was to take his backpack to his room for him, he’d thought. But, as he came closer it became something was _seriously_ wrong with Taeil.

For starters, his skin was a chalky white. There was a thick drop of sweat trickling down the side of his face and he seemed to be shaking, all the while struggling to keep his grip on the door behind him due to the perspiration that was no doubt slicking his palms. His eyes followed Taeyong’s every move like an injured animal but he never made any acknowledgement of the conversation the younger man was attempting to hold. The only thing coming out of Taeil’s mouth were puffs of breath, which became more and more rapid as the seconds ticked by. An alarm was going off in Taeyong’s head long before he was close enough to actually see the tears streaming down Taeil’s face, but the closer he stepped to the nutrition major, the more concern enveloped him.

By then, Taeyong was close enough to Taeil to see his anguished expression up close. What he’d originally thought was sweat he now _knew_ were tears. _Holy shit._

“Taeil? What’s wrong?” Taeyong started, slowing his advance. He wanted to reach out and touch the other but the absolute terror in Taeil’s eyes told him that that might not be the best idea. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Taeil stayed silent while tears spilled mercilessly through past his lash line, splashing down on his cheeks like rain. There was a ball of hot frustration wedged in his throat that increased in size the more Taeyong spoke or got closer and it was all Taeil had in him to not start screaming because _Yuta was right? I’m gay? I can’t stop staring at Taeyong because he’s really fucking pretty and I can’t believe I’ve never noticed how much I want to hold his hand? I’m—_

 _“_ Gay,” Taeil sobbed, tears wracking his whole body.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading!!!! and to whoever originally requested this im so sorry im just now posting this and that i almost completely avoided ur original request im terrible i know widwjiojedo anyways!!!! part 2 will be out in a couple of days bc i've already written it so Fear Not !!!! let me know what u think in the comments ok thank !
> 
> p.s. validate me on social media pls im trying to start over after leaving tumblr nd all my old pals :-/// i'd lov to be friends or just talk abt the trash i write !
> 
> twt + curious cat: m4rk1ee


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